New Zealand to hold referendum on changing to 'post-colonial' flag

New Zealand to hold referendum by 2017 on replacing current flag with a new design, Prime Minister John Key has confirmed

John Key proposes to change the current New Zealand flag to incorporate a silver fernPhoto: ALAMY

By Paul Chapman in Wellington

3:08AM GMT 11 Mar 2014

New Zealanders will vote in a referendum within the next three years on whether to change the nation's flag, John Key, the Prime Minister, has announced.

Any change in the 112-year-old ensign will almost certainly abolish the Union Flag from the top left quadrant.

In a speech at Wellington's Victoria University on Tuesday, Mr Key said he would set up a cross-parliamentary working group of MPs to recommend the best way to conduct the referendum, which would be held before the 2017 general election.

It is thought that the current ensign, which features the Union Flag and stars of the Southern Cross constellation on a blue background, is likely to be pitched against alternatives to be popularly decided on.

"It's my belief, and I think one increasingly shared by many New Zealanders, that the design of the New Zealand flag symbolises a colonial and post-colonial era whose time has passed," he said.

"The flag remains dominated by the Union Jack in a way that we ourselves are no longer dominated by the United Kingdom.

"I am proposing that we take one more step in the evolution of modern New Zealand by acknowledging our independence through a new flag."

Mr Key drew a comparison with Canada.

"Back in 1965, Canada changed its flag from one that, like ours, also had the Union Jack in the corner, and replaced it with the striking symbol of modern Canada that all of us recognise and can identify today," he said.

"Fifty years on, I can't imagine many Canadians would, if asked, choose to go back to the old flag.

"That old flag represented Canada as it was once, rather than as it is now.

Similarly, I think our flag represents us as we were once, rather than as we are now."

A self-declared enthusiast of the monarchy, Mr Key was careful to draw a distinction about the constitutional implications of a change.

"We retain a strong and important constitutional link to the monarchy and I get no sense of any groundswell of support to let that go," he said.

"Nor could we, or would we, dispose of the cultural legacy which gave us a proud democracy, a strong legal system and a rich artistic heritage."

He went on: "Some people say that we should look at the flag only if we're also reviewing our wider constitutional arrangements. I don't agree.

"Our status as a constitutional monarchy continues to serve us well.

"It's an arrangement that provides stability, continuity and keeps our head of state above party politics.

"However, this country, the way we see ourselves in the world and the way others see us, has changed dramatically in the past century. Our flag does not reflect those changes."

Mr Key acknowledged the deep misgivings of former military personnel, especially as he was proposing change on the eve of the centenary of the start of the First World War.

"I do not underestimate the significance of the flag to New Zealand's servicemen and women and their families, but being respectful of our history does not lock us permanently in the past," he said.

He also alluded to the confusion that sometimes occurs internationally between the New Zealand and Australian flags, saying of any new design: "If we choose well, it will become internationally recognisable in a way that our current flag is not, despite more than a hundred years of use."

But Mr Key said it was possible that after the plebiscite the flag, which was approved as New Zealand's official ensign by King Edward VII in 1902, could remain as it is.

Debate has raged over the issue since Mr Key raised it last month, when he said he favoured a silver fern design on a black background.

A One News Colmar Brunton poll, conducted for the state-owned TVNZ television channel, showed 72 per cent of people asked wanted to stick with the existing flag, while only 28 per cent favoured changing it.